Edith Head

Edith Head
Head in 1976
Born	Edith Claire Posener San Bernardino, California, U.S.
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley (B.A.) Stanford University (M.A.)
OccupationTemplate:Pluralize from text	Costume designer
Years active	1923–1981
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Notable creditTemplate:Pluralize from text	Template:Pluralize from text
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Criminal chargeTemplate:Pluralize from text	Template:Pluralize from text
SpouseTemplate:Pluralize from text	Charles Head ​ ​ (m. 1923; div. 1938)​ Wiard Ihnen ​ ​ (m. 1940; died 1979)​ Template:Pluralize from text
PartnerTemplate:Pluralize from text	Template:Pluralize from text
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Awards	Academy Award for Best Costume Design (8 wins)

Edith Claire Head (née Posener; October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American film costume designer. She received a record 35 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and won a record eight times, making her both the most honored and most nominated woman in the Academy's history. She also holds the Guinness World Record for most-credited costume designer in film history, with a total of 432 credits.

Raised between California and Nevada, Head earned degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University before beginning a career as a French and Spanish languages teacher. After taking courses at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, she was hired in 1923 as a costume sketch artist at Famous Players–Lasky, which later became Paramount Pictures. She won acclaim for her design of Dorothy Lamour’s trademark sarong in the 1936 film The Jungle Princess, and became a household name after the Academy Award for Best Costume Design was created in 1948. Head was considered exceptional for her close working relationships with her subjects, with whom she consulted extensively; these included virtually every top female star in Hollywood.

Head worked at Paramount for 44 years, and was frequently loaned out by the studio for work on projects for other studios. While under contract at Paramount, she designed the costumes for several films by Alfred Hitchcock, including Notorious (1946), Vertigo (1958), The Birds (1963), and Marnie (1964). In 1968, after Paramount declined to renew her contract, Hitchcock invited her to join Universal Pictures. There she earned her eighth and final Academy Award for her work on The Sting in 1973.

Outside of film, Head was commissioned to design the official women's uniform for the United States Coast Guard in the 1970s, due to the increasing number of women in the Coast Guard, for which she received the Meritorious Public Service Award.

Early life

Head was born Edith Claire Posener on October 28, 1897 in San Bernardino, California, the daughter of Jewish parents, Anna E. (nee Levy) and Max Posener. Her father was a naturalized American citizen from Germany who came to the United States in 1876 at age eighteen, while her American mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1875, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Bavarian mother. Shortly before Head's birth, her father opened a small haberdashery in San Bernardino. The business failed within a year, after which he abandoned the family and relocated to El Paso, Texas.

In 1901, Head's mother Anna married Frank Spare, a mining engineer from Pennsylvania. Anna and Frank passed Edith off as their biological child, giving her his surname, and raised her in his Roman Catholic faith. Due to her stepfather's job, the family moved frequently during her childhood to various mining camps, with a significant portion spent in rural Searchlight, Nevada. A shy and introverted only child, Head often spent time building makeshift dollhouses out of cardboard boxes, and creating figures out of greasewood that naturally grew in the desert. She would also create costumes for animals, including her pet dog and cat, as well as wild horned lizards. "I had no other children for playmates," she recalled. "Naturally, all of my intensive imagination in child's play had to be connected to activities I could pursue alone." Head was teased by classmates due to her front teeth never growing in properly, and because of this, rarely smiled.

She completed her elementary school education in Redding, California in 1911, before the family lived for a period in Mexico, where Head learned to speak Spanish. Head and her mother subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, where she graduated from Los Angeles High School.

Head enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in 1915, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and sciences with honors in French. She subsequently enrolled at Stanford University, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in romance languages in 1920. She became a language teacher with her first position as a replacement at The Bishop's School in La Jolla teaching French and Spanish. After one year, she took a position teaching French at the Hollywood School for Girls, where her students included Cecilia and Katherine DeMille, daughters of studio executive Cecil B. DeMille. Wanting a slightly higher salary, she told the school that she could also teach art, even though she had only briefly studied the discipline in high school. To improve her drawing skills, at this point rudimentary, she took evening classes at the Otis Art Institute and Chouinard Art College.

On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, a salesman for the Southern California Super Fine Metals Company, and the brother of one of her Chouinard classmates, Betty Head. Due to Charles's drinking problem and her reduced teaching salary during the summer months, Head began seeking work as a sketch artist to help supplement their income.

Career

1923—1929: Famous Players–Lasky

In 1923, despite lacking significant art, design, and costume design experience, the 26-year-old Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at the Famous Players–Lasky studios, which was later absorbed by Paramount Pictures. Later she admitted to "borrowing" other students' sketches for her job interview with the studio: "I was studying seascape and all I could draw was oceans. I needed a portfolio, so I borrowed sketches—I didn't steal them, I asked everybody in the class for a few costume design sketches. And I had the most fantastic assortment you've ever seen in your life. When you get a class of forty to give you sketches, you get a nice selection."

At Paramount, Head studied under lead designers Howard Greer, and later, Travis Banton. Head recounted the experience favourably, saying: Template:Quote

Head began designing costumes for the studio's silent films, commencing with The Wanderer in 1925 and, by the 1930s, had established herself as one of Hollywood's leading costume designers.

1930–1967: Paramount Pictures

Head's costume designs for Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in Samson and Delilah (1949), for which she won an Oscar

Head remained employed by Paramount Pictures after the studio absorbed Famous Players–Lasky. After Banton's resignation in 1938 she took over as head designer for the studio. Her association with the "sarong" dress designed for Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane (1937) made her well known among the general public, although Head was a more restrained designer than either Banton or Adrian.

She gained public attention for the top mink-lined gown she created for Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark (1944), which caused much comment owing to the mood of wartime austerity. The establishment, in 1949, of the Academy Award for Costume Design further boosted her career, giving her a record-breaking run of Award nominations and wins, beginning with her nomination for The Emperor Waltz. Head and other film designers like Adrian became well known to the public.

Head was known for her particular working style and, unlike many of her male contemporaries, usually consulted extensively with the female stars with whom she worked. As a result, she was a favorite among many of the leading female stars of the 1940s and 1950s, such as Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman, Rita Hayworth, Shirley MacLaine, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, Head was frequently "loaned out" by Paramount to other studios at the request of their female stars. She herself always dressed plainly, preferring thick-framed glasses and conservative two-piece suits.

In 1946, Head worked for the first time with director Alfred Hitchcock on his spy film Notorious. Head was loaned from Paramount to Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) pictures to work with Hitchcock on this film, at the request of actress Ingrid Bergman. At this time it was usual for costume designers to reflect their own style. Head had a different outlook on this, thinking that it was more important to design pieces that reflected the character. During their time working on Notorious, Head and Hitchcock found that they were like-minded and had the same bluntness in their careers and attitudes. The costumes she designed for this film reflected restraint and the need to blend in. This style suited what Hitchcock was looking for, since he did not want the clothes to be the focal point. The two went on to work together many more times.

Head in 1955

On February 3, 1955 (Season 5 Episode 21), Head appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life. She and her partner won a total of $1,540. Her winnings were donated to charity.

Head wrote two books describing her career and design philosophy, The Dress Doctor (1959) and How To Dress For Success (1967). These books were re-edited in 2008 and 2011, respectively.

1968–1981: Universal Pictures

In 1968, at the age of 70, Head left Paramount Pictures and was contracted with Universal Pictures, where she remained until her death in 1981. By this point, Hollywood was rapidly changing from what it had been during Head's heyday in the 1930s-1940s. Studio-based production was giving way to outdoors and on-scene shooting, and many of the actresses from that era whom she worked with and knew intimately had retired or were working less. She thus turned more of her attention to TV, where some old friends such as Olivia de Havilland had begun working. She made a cameo appearance in 1973 on the detective series Columbo beside Anne Baxter, playing herself and displaying her Oscars to date. In 1974, Head received a final Oscar win for her work on The Sting (1973).

In the late 1970s, Head was asked to design a woman's uniform for the United States Coast Guard, because of the increasing number of women in the Coast Guard. Head called the assignment a highlight in her career and received the Meritorious Public Service Award for her efforts. Her designs for a TV mini-series based on the novel Little Women were well received. She also designed the costumes for Elizabeth Taylor in the Hallmark Hall of Fame segment "Return Engagement" (1978).

Her last film project was the black-and-white comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), starring Steve Martin and Carl Reiner, a job Head was chosen for because of her expertise on 1940s fashions. She modeled Martin and Reiner's outfits on classic film noir and the movie, released in theaters just after her death, was dedicated to her memory.

Design style

Unlike most other designers of her time, Head never undertook couture or wholesale fashion work, opting to "work only in the context of a certain actress in a certain film." Olivia de Havilland, whose costumes were designed by Head for the films To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), said: "Every dress was perfect. Just putting them on, I became these women and I knew right where they were in the stories. Edith even came to New York with me before The Heiress and we studied the underwear at the Brooklyn Museum so it would be absolutely authentic."

Head herself regarded her work as apart from the world of fashion design, and did not consider herself a fashion designer. Commenting in 1978 on her view of her profession, she said: Template:Quote

Personal life

On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head. The marriage ended in divorce in 1938, though she continued to be known professionally as Edith Head for the remainder of her life. She remarried art director Wiard Ihnen in 1940, a marriage that lasted until his death from prostate cancer in 1979.

Though both of her parents were Jewish, Head was raised practicing Roman Catholicism, the faith of her stepfather, and remained a "staunch Catholic" through her later life. She was a regular parishioner of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.

Death

In 1972, Head was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, an incurable bone marrow cancer which causes excessive, uncontrolled scar tissue accumulation in the bone marrow. To treat the disease, Head received regular blood transfusions to prevent severe anemia. Head died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles of complications from myelofibrosis on October 24, 1981.

A private funeral mass was held at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills, where actress Bette Davis gave a brief eulogy. Also in attendance were Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh, Ann Sothern, George Peppard, Loretta Young, Jane Wyman, and Lew Wasserman. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Legacy

Head holds the distinction of being the most-credited costume designer in history, with a total of 432 film credits to her name.

Over the course of her career, she was nominated for a total of 35 Academy Awards, annually from 1949 (the first year that the Oscar for Best Costume Design was awarded) through 1966, and won eight times—receiving more Oscars than any other woman.

Head's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which she received in 1974, is located at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

As a costume designer, Head has a total of 432 credits to her name.

Selected design credits

Year	Film	Notable performer(s)	Notes	Ref.
1927	Wings		Uncredited
1929			Uncredited
1929	Wolf Song		Uncredited
1933	She Done Him Wrong
1934	Little Miss Marker
1936
1936	Rhythm on the Range
1937	Ebb Tide
1937
1938	Dangerous to Know
1938	Zaza
1939
1940	Road to Singapore
1940	Untamed
1941
1941	Ball of Fire
1941	Sullivan's Travels
1942	I Married a Witch
1942	Road to Zanzibar
1942	Road to Morocco
1942	Holiday Inn
1943	Flesh and Fantasy
1944	Double Indemnity
1944	Lady in the Dark
1944	Tender Comrade
1944
1944	I'll Be Seeing You
1945	Incendiary Blonde
1945
1945	Masquerade in Mexico
1945	Christmas in Connecticut
1946	My Reputation
1946
1946	Notorious
1946	Road to Utopia
1947	Road to Rio
1947
1947	Cry Wolf
1947
1947
1948	June Bride
1948	Beyond Glory
1949	My Friend Irma	Diana Lynn
1949
1949	Samson and Delilah
1950	All About Eve
1950
1950	Sunset Boulevard
1951
1951	Payment on Demand
1951	Here Comes the Groom
1952	Just for You
1952	Something to Live For
1952	Road to Bali
1952	Stolen Face
1953	Scared Stiff
1953	Houdini
1953
1953	Those Redheads from Seattle
1953	Roman Holiday
1954	Sabrina
1954	Elephant Walk
1954	White Christmas
1954	Rear Window
1955	To Catch a Thief
1955	Artists and Models
1955	Lucy Gallant
1956
1956
1957	Three Violent People
1957	Witness for the Prosecution
1957	Funny Face
1958
1958	Separate Tables
1958	Teacher's Pet
1958	Vertigo
1959	Alias Jesse James
1959	That Kind of Woman
1960	Heller in Pink Tights
1961
1961	Breakfast at Tiffany's
1961	Blue Hawaii
1962
1962	Hatari!
1963	Donovan's Reef
1963	Critic's Choice
1963	I Could Go On Singing
1963	Love with the Proper Stranger
1963
1964	Sex and the Single Girl
1964	Marnie
1964	What a Way to Go!
1964	Man's Favorite Sport?
1964
1965	Harlow
1965	Love Has Many Faces
1965	Ship of Fools
1965	John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
1965
1965	Inside Daisy Clover
1965
1966	Penelope
1966	This Property Is Condemned
1966	El Dorado
1966	Waco
1966	Torn Curtain
1967	Hotel
1967	Barefoot in the Park
1968	Berserk!
1968	Hellfighters
1969	Sweet Charity
1969	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1969	Topaz
1970	Myra Breckinridge
1973	Ash Wednesday
1973
1974	Earthquake		Uncredited
1975
1975	Rooster Cogburn
1975
1976	Gable and Lombard
1976	Family Plot
1976	W. C. Fields and Me
1978	Sextette
1980
1982	Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid		Final feature film credit

Screen appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1955	Lucy Gallant	Herself
1961		Dress designer	Uncredited
1966		Herself
1973	Columbo	Herself	Episode: "Requiem for a Falling Star"

Accolades

Head received eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, more than any other person, from a total of 35 nominations.

Institution	Year	Category	Nominated work	Outcome	Ref.
Academy Awards	1949	Best Costume Design – Color		Nominated
	1950	Best Costume Design – Black & White		Won
	1951		All About Eve	Won
		Best Costume Design – Color	Samson and Delilah	Won
	1952	Best Costume Design – Black & White		Won
	1953		Carrie	Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color		Nominated
	1954	Best Costume Design – Black & White	Roman Holiday	Won
	1955		Sabrina	Won
	1956			Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color	To Catch a Thief	Nominated
	1957	Best Costume Design – Black & White		Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color		Nominated
	1958	Best Costume Design	Funny Face	Nominated
	1959			Nominated
	1960	Best Costume Design – Black & White	Career	Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color		Nominated
	1961	Best Costume Design – Black & White		Won
		Best Costume Design – Color	Pepe	Nominated
	1962		Pocketful of Miracles	Nominated
	1963	Costume Design – Black & White		Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color	My Geisha	Nominated
	1964	Best Costume Design – Black & White	Love with the Proper Stranger	Nominated
			Wives and Lovers	Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color		Nominated
	1965	Best Costume Design – Black & White		Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color	What a Way to Go!	Nominated
	1966	Best Costume Design – Black & White		Nominated
		Best Costume Design – Color	Inside Daisy Clover	Nominated
	1967			Nominated
	1970	Best Costume Design	Sweet Charity	Nominated
	1971		Airport	Nominated
	1974			Won
	1976			Nominated
	1978		Airport '77	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	1976	Best Costume Design		Nominated
Costume Designers Guild Awards	1999	Hall of Fame	—Template:Screen reader-only	Template:Honored

Sources

• Alston, Isabella; Dixon, Kathryn (2014). Edith Head. Charlotte, North Carolina: TAJ Books International. ISBN 978-1-844-06389-5.
• Bauer, Laura L. S., ed. (2018). Hollywood Heroines: The Most Influential Women in Film History. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 978-1-440-83649-7.
• Brackett, Charles (2014). "It's the Pictures That Got Small": Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age. New York City, New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53822-0.
• Commire, Anne Commire; Klezmer, Deborah Klezmer (2000). Women in World History: Harr-I. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. ISBN 978-0-7876-4066-8.
• Chierichetti, David (1976). Hollywood Costume Design. New York City, New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-517-52637-8.
• Chierichetti, David (2003). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer. New York City, New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-060-19428-4.
• Ellenberger, Allan R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-786-45019-0.
• Greven, David (2013). Psycho-Sexual: Male Desire in Hitchcock, De Palma, Scorsese, and Friedkin. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-74202-4.
• Head, Edith (1983). Edith Head's Hollywood. New York City, New York: Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-24200-0.
• Head, Edith; Ardmore, Jane Kesner (1959). The Dress Doctor. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown. OCLC 978259.
• Head, Edith; Hyams, Joe (1967). How to Dress for Success. New York: Random House. LCCN 66012021.
• Maltin, Leonard (2003). Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2004. New York City, New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-452-28478-4.
• Jorgensen, Jay (2010). Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press. ISBN 978-0-762-43805-1.
• Jorgensen, Jay; Scoggins, Donald L. (2015). Creating the Illusion: A Fashionable History of Hollywood Costume Designers. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press. ISBN 978-0-762-45807-3.
• Kellogg, Ann T. (2002). In an Influential Fashion: An Encyclopedia of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Fashion Designers and Retailers Who Transformed Dress. New York City, New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-313-31220-5.
• Leese, Elizabeth (1991). Costume Design In the Movies: An Illustrated Guide to the Work of 157 Great Designers. New York City, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-26548-3.
• Lim, Shirley Jennifer (2006). A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women's Public Culture, 1930-1960. New York City, New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-814-75194-7.
• McDonagh, Fintan (2021). Edward Dmytryk: Reassessing His Films and Life. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-476-64314-4.
• Maxford, Howard (2018). Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-476-62914-8.
• Naylor, Colin (1990). Contemporary Designers. Chicago, Illinois: St. James Press. ISBN 978-0-912-28969-4.
• Osborne, Robert (1999). 70 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards. New York City, New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 978-0-789-20484-4.
• Parish, James Robert (1994). Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films: Plots, Critiques, Casts, and Credits for 264 Theatrical and Made-for-Television Releases. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-899-50676-0.
• Shelley, Peter (2010). Frances Farmer: The Life and Films of a Troubled Star. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-4745-9.
• Smith, Ella (1973). Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck. New York City, New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-517-50602-8.
• Steele, Valerie, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Vol. 2. Detroit, Michigan: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-684-31396-2.
• Ware, Susan (2004). Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01488-6.

External links

• Edith Head at IMDb
• Edith Head papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences